from the yeah,-good-luck-with-that dept

So, we already wrote about Comcast's attempted charm offensive (built on blatant falsehoods) as part of its effort to get its merger with Time Warner Cable approved. We also wrote about Comcast cruising to an easy victory in Consumerist's famed 'Worst Company' awards (beating out the comic book and sci-fi level evil in Monsanto).

So, in reading through Comcast's filing with the FCC about why its merger is in the "public interest," I found it curious that Comcast decided to ignore the Consumerist award, and instead focus on an award suggesting something entirely different:

By investing heavily in talent, research and development, and in the infrastructure
needed to facilitate creativity and invention, Comcast has created a culture of innovation. Comcast now employs over 1,000 engineers and developers, and vigorously competes for new engineering talent with the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, and Twitter. Its single-minded focus on enhancing its services and pursuing innovation have earned it first place among cable and satellite providers on Fortune Magazine’s list of World’s Most Admired Companies – up from third place.

I live in Silicon Valley and talk to engineers all the time. I hear about various job offers and dream jobs, and people talking about working for Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Twitter (and a few other companies as well). I've never, ever, heard anyone even once thinking about working for Comcast.

Of course, it is true that Fortune put Comcast on its list, but note the small caveat that this is solely in the "cable and satellite providers" category which (no joke) consists of a total of four whole companies -- and one of them (ranked the lowest, by the way) is Time Warner Cable. Even more important? The bit that Comcast conveniently leaves out of this message is the line right above its rank in that narrow category. And that's its overall rank:

In other words, Comcast is not in the top 50 "most admired" companies. It only scores in this narrow category with only a very small number of companies, where almost every other company is hated. Now, if we look at the companies that are actually at the very top of the real "Most Admired" list, we'll see: Apple, Amazon and Google in the top three spots. Microsoft (24) and Facebook (38) come in a bit lower. Hell, even AT&T (not a cable or satellite provider) sneaks its way into the top 50 most admired companies at number 50.

So, once again, Comcast's attempts to mislead just call out more scrutiny on the fact that the company seems allergic to honesty. Even in trying to highlight how "admired" the company is, it's actually calling attention to the simple fact that it's not admired at all.